1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to animal traps and more particularly to traps for mice, rats, rodents, and the like.
2. Background Art
Mice and rats are destructive pests and vectors for a variety of diseases. Rats harbor and transmit a number of serious diseases, carrying fleas, lice, and ticks, and have been responsible for Bubonic Plague, known as the Black Death, which is usually transmitted to humans by fleas from rats. The first of the well known recurrent bubonic and pneumonic plagues beset Western Europe in 1348 A.D. and recurred until the 1730's, having catastrophic effects by wiping out what is estimated to be 50 per cent of the populations of that time. Female Norway Rats can breed and have four to seven litters per year, producing from eight to twelve young per litter. Rats damage structures, chew electrical wiring and cause electrical fires, eat, urinate on and deposit feces on human and animal food, and carry many diseases. Thousands of rat bites are reported each year in the U.S. alone, and many rat bites go unreported. Mice are also a significant nuisance and source of danger, and can invade a home or commercial establishment, seeking food, water, and warmth. Mice have also been responsible for electrical fires by chewing through electrical wires. In six months, one pair of mice can eat about four pounds of food and produce approximately 18,000 fecal droppings, contaminating and spreading disease to humans and animals with these droppings. Each mouse can contaminate ten times more food than it eats, and each pair of mice can produce as many as 200 offspring in four months. Because of the proliferation of both rats and mice, each is difficult to control.
Both rats and mice proliferate in large numbers rapidly, and because of the disease carrying characteristics of both mice and rats, there is a need for sanitary removal of each, obviating the need for human contact with both rats and mice. Once a home, warehouse, restaurant, hotel, supermarket, farm, or commercial establishment is infested with rats or mice, control of the population of such mice and rats becomes extremely difficult and dangerous to the human population.
There is a need for a mouse and rat trap that can be used to trap and rapidly kill at least one mouse, rat, rodent, and the like in a humane way, that can be used multiple times in heavily infested areas, is inexpensive, easy to operate, durable, and that allows for sanitary disposal of a plurality of the trapped and dead mice, rats, rodents, and the like without contact to humans who are required to dispose of the dead mice, rats, rodents, and the like.
Different mouse and rat traps have heretofore been known. However, none of these mouse traps and rat traps adequately satisfies the aforementioned needs.
Different rat traps and mouse traps have been disclosed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,471,781 (Vine) discloses a trap for capturing mice or other rodents, including a main body having an entrance ramp leading thereinto. A bait container is positioned within the main body of the mouse trap to attract a mouse towards a pivotally mounted trap door. A holding compartment positioned beneath the trap door receives the mouse within a removable drawer. The drawer includes an insertable screen, which permits removal of the drawer and transport of the mouse to an exterior area for release thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,566,218 (Kurosawa et al) discloses an apparatus for automatically trapping and processing rats, having a tube for delivering under suction a trapped rat together with a ball shaped carrier into a collection tube spaced from a rat entry opining in the tube. The trapped rat is killed by a carbon dioxide gas supplied in the collection tube, and placed in a bag shaped film which is fused and cut off. The dead rat contained in the bag is then discharged.
European Patent No. EP159634 (Kurosawa et al) also discloses an apparatus having several trapping tubes, each tube having entry openings for a rat in its side walls. All the trapping tubes are connected to a common conveying tube. A suction fan is used to produce air flow in the conveying tube and push a trapped rat into a processing section, where the trapped rat is asphyxiated and packed into a plastic bag for discharge into a container.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,511,339 (Pencheon) discloses a trap for rodents, such as mice, rats, and similar small animals, which consists of a cabinet having an upper entrance to allow the rodents to enter, and a lower chamber to retain the rodents. The trap resets itself, so that it may be used to trap more than one rodent in heavily infested areas.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,418,493 (Jordan) discloses an animal trap comprising a system of interconnected modular units including a gate, which is treadle operated by an entering animal to snap to a latch closed position from an open position adjacent the floor of the trap. The trap has a hermetically sealed capture module with a plastic bag liner, which may be disengaged from the system of interconnected modular units for disposal purposes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,030,230 (Souza) discloses an animal trap, particularly a mouse trap, in combination with a package therefor, wherein the trap is normally urged into a collapsible container forming part of the package, such as a paper bag, by a resilient means in the form of a rubber band, with a limited stop means being provided to temporarily maintain the trap outside the container until an animal triggers the trap, at which time the impact causes the trap to jump the stop and be withdrawn into the container. The trap and the trapped animal are thus encased by the package and can be disposed of without contact by the user.
Japanese Patent No. JP0511345 (Assignee: (NIPQ) Dainippon Printing Co. Ltd.) discloses a rat trap with automatic discarding system, consisting of a laminate of nonwoven cloth and polyethylene film with adhesive to adherence to the rat and foldable means for disposal.
British Patent No. GB2252485 (Bailey) discloses an animal trap for trapping and killing a small animal having an integral bag for storage, a baseboard, a trigger, and a flexible bag container with an open front end portion and a closed rear end portion adapted to underlie at least part of the trap. An animal may enter the open end portion, and upon being trapped and killed, the animal will remain in the bag for disposal.
Swiss Patent No. CH643710 (Muller) discloses a trap having a baseboard and a cover which is hinged with one edge on the baseboard. A hinged strut supports the cover in a raised position and is pulled aside by a trip cord linked to a platform, the top end of which holds bait. Trapped animals are removed via a sack fitted to a release port.
German Patent No. DE2916239 (Gerlach) discloses a box trap for rat catching and has trailer boxes for removing a rat caught in the trap without danger to a user. The trap has two hinged trap doors, which are held by a movable linkage in an opened position. Once a rat is in the box trap, the trap doors cannot be pushed up from inside. The rat is driven into the trailer box, which can be removed and dropped into water, so that the rat can be drowned.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,287 (Knudsen) discloses a rat trap which includes a detector, as well as a power driven executing member for performance of successive operations after an automatic removal of previously executed rats. A built in energy source is provided in the trap for enabling activation of the executing member many times.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,356,655 (Morante et al) discloses an animal trap for trapping and disposal of small animals, such as rodents. The trap has a one way entrance actuated by a treadle adjacent an inaccessible source of food and a ladder leading to a one way chute, which is connected to a source of disposal, such as water.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,481,824 (Fiore, Jr.) discloses a tunnel type mouse trap, which is intended for disposal, having a central trapping mechanism powered by a rubber band. The rubber band urges a striker plate upwardly, and the trap is set by pushing down on the striker plate to engage a pivotal trigger carried by an anchor plate. When a mouse enters the tunnel and dislodges the trigger, the striker plate springs upwardly under the force of the rubber band and traps the mouse's neck in one of the trapping apertures.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a mouse and rat trap that can be used to trap and rapidly kill at least one mouse, rat, rodent, and the like in a humane way, that can be used multiple times in heavily infested areas, is inexpensive, easy to operate, durable, and that allows for sanitary disposal of a plurality of the trapped and dead mice, rats, rodents, and the like without contact to humans who are required to dispose of the dead mice, rats, rodents, and the like.